AND THEIR TRANSFORMATIONS. ,q. 



Eager he looks, and soon to glad his eyes 



From the sweet bower liy nature formed arise 



Bright troops of virgin moths and fresh- liom huttei-flies — 



— He fears no bailiff's wrath, no baron's blame, 



His isuntax'd and undisputed game." 



Indeed so strong is the " fancy," as it is termed, witli some of these laborious collectors, that I have known 

 some, who, after toiling at their weaving machines all the week, have started at ten o'clock on Saturday night, in 

 order to arrive at Darentli and Birch Wood by daybreak, so as to collect the twilight-flying moths. Daniel 

 Bydder, one of the most industrious of these collectors, and who was employed by Dr. Leach to collect for him 

 in the New Forest (where he discovered Platypus cylindrus and Cicada anglica), was, I believe, the first of the 

 Spitalfields collectors who attempted to arrange his insects scientifically, and now, following the example of the 

 Entomological Society, they have formed themselves into a society of " Practical Entomologists," and have a 

 well-arranged collection, meeting at regular intervals, in order to communicate to each other the result of their 

 captures. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE XXXIV. 



Insects. — Fig. 1. Polyommatus vVrgiis, (the silver-studded blue Butteifiv). 2. The female. 3. A common variety of the female. 4. 

 Showing the under side. 5. Tiie Caterpillar. G. The Chrysalis. 

 *' Fig. 7. Polyommatus Alexis (the common blue Butterfly). 8. The female. 9. Showing the underside. 10. A variety of 

 the female. 1 1 . An Hermaphrodite variety, having the wings of a female on one side and of a male on the otlier. 

 12. Tlie Caterpillar. 13. The Chrysalis. 

 Plants. — Fig. 14. Cytisus Scoparius (tiie common brown). 



" Fig. 15. Medicago sativa (the cultivated lucerne). 



The insects on the present plates are from specimens in the British Museum, where are tlirce other Hermaphrodite specimens of P. Alexis, 

 but none of any of the other species. Tlie caterpillars arc both from Godart. Iliibner has given a very difl'crent figure of the larva of Alexis, 

 but as Godart minutely describes the rearing of several, I have preferred his figure. He describes the larva of P. Alexis aa feeding upon ilie 

 cultivated lucerne, and those of P. Argus upon the couimou broom. II. N. H. 



SPECIES 8.— POLYOMMATUS ALEXIS. THE COMMON BLUE BUTTERFLY. 



Plate xxxiv. fig. 7—12. 



Liiccena Donjias, Leach ; Samouellc ; but not of Iliibner. 

 Papilki Jli/acinlhus, Lewin, Pap. 37. fig. 4. 5, C; ncc Fabricius : 

 Haworlh (variety). 



Poli/ommattis Laliifnns, .Termyn (variety). 

 Pohjiimmatus Thcstylis, .Icrmyn (variety). 

 Pobjommiiliis Lacnn, Jerniyn (variety). 

 Polyommatus ilulnus Kirby MSS. (variety). 



SvNoNVMEs. — Papilio Ale.vU, Wiener, Verzeicliniss, p. 1S4 ; 

 Hubner, P.ap. pi 60, fig. 292. 



/*o(yo7Hma^ws .^/f.i';*", Latreille ; Slephens ; Curtis; Wood, Ind. 

 Ent. pi. 3, fig. 69, m. and f. Duncan, Brit. Butt, title page. 



Papilio Icarus^ Villars ; Haworth ; Lewin, Pap. jd. 38, fig. 4, 5, 8, 

 Esper. Schmett. t. 32, fig. 4, m. 



Papilio Argus^'^^WWs, ]}\. 119; Itonovan, Brit. Ins. pi. 143, 

 upper figures ; Harris Aurelian, pi. 39, fig. g — i. 



This, one of the most abundant of our native butterflies, varies in the expanse of its wings from less than an 

 inch to nearly an inch and a half. The upper surface of the wings in the males is of a fine silky lilac-blue, the 

 anterior margin of the fore wings being edged with white, the outer edge of all the wings with a slender dark line, 

 and the fringe white. The body is clothed with long whitish blue silken hairs. The underside of the wings is also 

 very similar in its marking to the two preceding species, but the ground colour of the wings is rather paler. There 

 is an ocellated spot in the middle of the discoidal cell, with another, more indistinct, beneath it, which is sometimes 

 connected with the innermost ocellus of the series between the extremity of the discoidal cell and the outer margin 

 of the wincr ; the base of the hind wings is strongly glossed with shining bluish-green atoms, and the sub-marginal 



